Material Support to Al-Qaeda

[Ted Smith]

On Mon, 2013-03-25 at 22:24 +0100, Eugen Leitl wrote:
> On Mon, Mar 25, 2013 at 05:09:14PM -0400, Ted Smith wrote:
>
> > > Their equivalent would be a 20 kT nuclear device in a Manhattan
> > > penthouse. If Theodore B. Taylor would be alive today, I think he
> > > would agree that today a thermonuclear device is no longer out
> > > of reach for small groups.
> >
> > I can't remember where, but I saw a review paper claiming this was
> > impossible because individuals with the intelligence to construct a
> > nuclear device tend not to join terror groups.
>
> If a drone holocausts your wedding party, surely this is terrorism?
> And surely there's only one way to avenge it, via the family honor
> killing code?
>
> Just invert the viewpoints, and it all becomes quite clear.
>
> Intent and ability to execute as well as funds are independently
> distributed traits, orelse it would have happened already.

I understand your point, but the fact remains that the socio-economic
populations that produce people capable of making homebrew nuclear
weapons and the socio-economic populations that get attacked by drones
are mostly distinct. My earlier point stands if you replace "terror
groups" with "extra-legal terror groups."

It's possibly a sad fact, in the same sense that if the USSR didn't have
nukes, and thus MAD didn't exist, most of Eurasia might be an atomic
wasteland by now.
--
Sent from Ubuntu

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